Without a War
by CappieAmerickyy
Summary: "Who am I in this time? I knew who I was back then. I was a skinny sickly kid, then I became Captain America. But I don't know how to live in this time. I don't know who I am." Steve struggles to adjust to the future with the help of Allison a therapist assigned to his case. Will Steve learn how to live amongst computers, gods, and superheros? (eventual StevexOC)
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:  
** Hello everyone, anyone. I love reading Captain America fics and love the ones where he has just woken up and has to struggle to adjust to the "future." So I decided to write my own. I found a timeline on tumblr that has him waking up about 8 days before the start of the Avengers. This is my take on it. There will be some drama, some action, some romance, and probably a lot of mistakes. I don't have a beta so it's just me for right now freeballing it lol. I hope you enjoy and please follow and comment!  
Marvel or any of its characters do not belong to me.

* * *

Prologue: April 22, 2011

"I think we should call him."

"No we shouldn't," John said sternly. "We don't even know if it's what we are digging for."

Richard's foggy goggles turned to look at him then back at the ice. He took his ice pick and hit it against the glacier in front of him and his partner. Both of them continued to clear away the ice in silence. Their picks clinked in a steady rhythm. Their breaths were coming out in puffs of steam as they worked. The temperatures were far below zero making everyone want to work as fast as possible. Now they were working fast because there was a possibility of finally finding it.

Richard dropped his pick to the fluffy snow below. He slowly lifted his goggles and took a step closer to what they had uncovered. Beside him John had started clearing away the leftover iced that had remained. Both of them were speechless. Richard turned to look at John, both of their mouths agape. He had already taken off of his glove and started dialing the Director.

After a moment John said, "Yes, Director. This is Agent Ashwell. W-we found him." John turned back to stare at the body in the ice. His skin was slightly blue from the ice. The man looked so serene almost like he was sleeping. "We found him," he repeated. "We found Captain America."


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:  
** Hello again! Thanks for continuing on to Chapter 1! The story really starts here! This one is wayy longer than the last one. That was a teaser and I'm pretty sure we all knew where it was going! haha Oh well, I hope you enjoy chapter 1. Again, I have no beta so please don't judge my spelling or grammar! If you enjoy please comment!

Marvel or any of its characters do not belong to me.

* * *

Chapter 1: April 25, 2011

Allison Cole straightened her tie and took a deep breath. She couldn't believe that she was doing this. It really should be an agent. She wasn't trained for this! She was a psychiatrist not a professional lying murdering machine. Not that she didn't like those murdering machines; some of them were her friends. Wait, she should be focusing. Taking another deep breath and checking that she had the panic button in her hand, she slowly turned the knob and steeped into the room.

To her surprise the patient was already awake. He was sitting on the side of the bed with a look of confusion on his face. "Good morning," Allison said softly. After checking her watch she corrected, "Or should I say good afternoon?"

This did little to calm him. He furrowed his eyebrows at her, "Where am I?"

"You're in a recovery room in New York City." A few taxi horns and the buzzing of the cars wafted in from the open windows.

He looked around the room a bit before glaring at the radio. A baseball game was playing softly from it. His eyebrows stitched together further. "Where am I really?"

Allison smiled back at the patient. A breathless laugh escaped her lips. "I'm afraid I don't understand," she replied.

"The game, it's from May 1941. I know because I was there." He watched as she reacted to his words. Her false smile slowly dropping to a look of disbelief. He stood up and started towards her. "Now I'm going to ask you again," he continued, "where am I?"

Allison silently pressed the small device in her hand. Inside she was panicking. This was exactly what she was afraid was going to happen. They really should have sent in someone else like Romanoff.

"Captain Rogers-"

"Who are you?" he demanded, his loud voice startling her a bit.

The door opened before she could answer and agents came rushing in. They lifted up their guns to point at him but Steve Rogers was too fast. He punched the first agent in the gut, sending him flying into Allison and knocking her off balance. He then grabbed the next closest agent and threw him into the other. Both of them flew into the wall next to his bed breaking a hole in it. He stepped out of the hole, stumbling as he saw the backgrounds of the windows.

"Captain Rogers, wait!" Allison called but it was too late, he was already threw the door and into the hall outside. She brought the walkie-talkie that she hid in the dresser drawers up to her mouth. "All agents code 13. I repeat, all agents code 13." She dropped her hand to her side and threw her head back. "Shit," she hissed out.

In the hall outside, Steve looked around for a second only to see men in suits swarming him. He pushed one out of the way and continued to run out of the building. Panic and fear was etched on his face. He didn't know what the strange building was but he knew he had to get out. He had to escape.

Finally reaching the outside, bizarre looking taxis and cars passed him in the streets. Drivers honked at him to get out of the way, so he ran.

Steve passed street after street making turns at random intervals so that they would lose their trail. Was this the work of Hydra? How had they captured him? He had defeated them hadn't he? Taking another left turn, he slowed down as he reached an intersection, a sudden thought causing him to slow down.

He had crashed the plane into the ocean, shouldn't he be dead?

He looked at the people and odd buildings around him. They seemed to disappear into the clouds they were so tall. The sides of the buildings had colorful moving pictures dancing on them. Lights were flashing to draw the eye this way and that. Horns were honking so loud he couldn't hear his own thoughts.

Suddenly, black cars surrounded him. A voice called out, "At ease soldier!" Steve turned to the sound of the voice. Out of one of the many cars stepped a tall man with an eye patch on. He continued walking until he was standing directly in front of Steve. With a small look of empathy on his face he said, "Look, I'm sorry about that little show back there, but we thought it best to break it to you slowly."

"Break what?" Steve demanded.

"You've been asleep, Cap," he paused, "for almost 70 years."

Steve looked at the man in front of him and knew he wasn't lying. Hydra was advanced but not like this. The sounds, the smells, and the looks of this place were the New York City of the future. His eyes darted left and right. Outside the circle of black cars was a crowd of people trying to figure out what was going on.

"You're going to be ok?" the man with the eye patch asked.

"Yeah, yeah. It's just-" Steve clenched his jaw. "I had a date." A flash of Peggy's face came to mind and Steve closed his eyes for a moment.

"Cap," the man behind him said. Steve took a shaky breath and turned around to face the man again. "If you will come with me I can explain more." His one eye quickly glanced at the crowd around them. "This isn't the place."

Steve gave a small nod and followed the man into the car ahead of them. Taking the driver's seat the man with the eye patch quickly drove on the streets. Steve was silently amazed at how quiet this car ran. The leather of the seat was smooth against his body. The car stopped in front of the building that he had just escaped from. Reluctantly he entered the building and followed this man into a room in the back and around the corner.

The room was very plain. All the walls but one was painted grey. The tables and chairs were set up in a "U" formation so that they all faced the sole glossy black wall. Standing near the desk with a file in his hands was another man. This man who seemed to be in his late forties was also wearing a suit. A manila file-folder was tucked under his arms. He smiled slightly as Steve and the other man stepped into the room.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions, Captain Rogers," the man with the eye patch began to say, "but I think we should explain everything before you ask anything." He motioned for Steve to sit in one of the seats. Steve shook his head while the other two men took their seats.

"As I said before Cap, you have been asleep for a long time." He leaned back in his seat a bit before he continued. "My friends have told me a lot about you; disobeying orders to rescue your friends, liberating various Hydra camps, defeating Johann Schmidt, and sacrificing yourself to save the world from nuclear destruction." Steve looked down at the ground trying not to remember the pain. "We were doing some digging when we found you frozen solid a few hundred feet from you plane in the arctic." The man reached to take the manila folder and slide it to Steve.

Slowly Steve opened it. Inside were a few pictures of him covered in ice. His lips were blue and his cheeks were sunken in a bit. He looked up at the two men sitting across from him. Both of them had serious looks on his face. Steve flipped through the pictures a bit more. In one of the photos he was still in his Captain America uniform but all of the ice had been cleared off of him. He flipped again to see him laying on the bed in the "recovery room." His clothes had been changed and he had an IV in his arm.

Setting the folder back on the table, he looked at the two men in the room. The man with the eye patch continued his explanation, "You have been asleep for almost 70 years. It's 2011, Cap. Agent Coulson and I are a part of an organization that stemmed off of the S.S.R. called S.H.I.E.L.D. or Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division." He stood up and walked over to Steve. He stretched out his hand and shook Steve's hand. "I am the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Nick Fury." Letting go of his hand, he motioned to the other man and said, "This is Agent Phil Coulson."

Agent Coulson took his hand and shook it eagerly. "It is such an honor to meet you," he said a little to excitedly. Next to him Director Fury rolled his eyes.

Steve opened his mouth ready to ask his questions when the door slammed open. In rushed the woman that he saw in the "recovery room". She was still wearing the 1940's nurse outfit but her hair had been pulled up into a big knot on the top of her head.

She walked right up to Director Fury and furiously started to apologize. "Director Fury I am so sorry for what happened. I didn't check the date of the game before we had set it up. Actually, one of the agents was in charge of checking that." She was speaking so fast that Steve was surprised she had anytime to breath. "I swear when I found out who was in charge of that I, I'm gonna-"

"Ms. Cole!" Director Fury boomed. She immediately shut her mouth. She crossed her arms across her chest and huffed in annoyance. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off, again.

Another woman rushed into the room and grabbed Ms. Cole by the shoulder turning her so that they were facing each other. "Allison! You can't just run around the building looking for…" the woman slowly stopped talking and looked at the other men in the room. "Di-Director Fury!" she cried. "We are so sorry for interrupting! We will leave right now." The older woman grabbed Allison's arm and started to

"Wa-wait, what? I should- " Allison stammered out before Director Fury started to explain again.

"Captain Rogers, this is Doctor Ellen Shah." He motioned to the older Indian woman. She had chin-length black hair that curved around her face. Her gray slacks were matched with a violet button-up and matching gray blazer.

As she shook Steve's hand Coulson leaned in and said, "Doctor Shah is a therapist. She meets with all of our agents to sort through the emotional baggage after missions." The doctor gave Steve a sweet smile at this.

"It's nice to meet you," Steve said to her.

"And this," the director growled, "is Miss Allison Cole. She is also a therapist. She helps rehabilitate agents to normal life after they come back from extended undercover missions." The lady in question looked irritably at him, and then extended her hand to Steve.

"Captain Rogers, I am really sorry for what happened earlier. It was not my attention to alarm you," she continued to shake his hand as she rambled, "It was actually the opposite of that I was hoping to make you comfortable before we told you what happened. Sometimes being in familiar environments help POWs listen to hard-to-hear information."

Steve let go of her hand and looked down at her. She was quite shorter than him, the top of her head barely reached his chin. The large knot on her head added a few inches though. "Ms. Cole, I don't appreciate being lied to," he said. Her eyes dropped to the floor and her small hands curled into fists. She nodded.

"It won't happen again," she mumbled. Her eyes came up to meet his again. He was struck with how blue they were. It was like he was looking into an ocean. Her dark brown hair created a stark contrast against her pale skin and blue eyes.

"Ms. Cole." She squeaked and turned to see Fury's one eye glaring at her. "Please meet me in my office." He turned his eye to Steve and said, "Coulson will show you to your room. We will talk more tomorrow." He then stormed out of the room and down the hall.

Coulson gestured to Steve to leave the room. As they both exited the room they could her Allison groan, "I am so fired."


	3. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:**

Thanks to those of you who have read my story! I probably won't be updating this often but I have a lot of free time right now. The story is moving a little slow right now but it'll pick up, I promise! Again, I have no beta so please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes!  
Marvel or any of its characters do not belong to me.

* * *

Chapter 2: April 25, 2011

Allison stood by the window of Fury's office watching the cars go by. She was a little annoyed that she was there. Yeah, she was in charge of getting the room ready because well, it was her idea. But she was only given two days to get it ready. She only slept for 4 hours so that it would be ready for them to move him in before he woke up!

There was bound to be a mistake. She couldn't have known that he was at the game that was playing on the radio. She let out a deep breath. Really, what were the chances that they picked a game that the Captain had been to? Obviously, pretty high.

Allison jumped slightly at the sound of the door opening. She smoothed her skirt down and stood in front of the desk as an annoyed Fury sat down behind it.

He folded his hands in front of him and looked pointedly up at her. Allison just stared back at him.

"We need him ready to fight," Fury said calmly.

Allie opened her mouth immediately ready to defend herself and then she comprehended what was just said. It was not the verbal thrashing that she was expecting. Furrowing her brows she asked, "Uh… what?"

"We need Captain Rogers ready to go back into the field," he reiterated.

"Like how soon?" she wondered. Instead of answering the directory just crossed his arms. Allison looked at him skeptically. "Captain Rogers needs to learn to deal with his PTSD and also get used to being in an age where not only crop tops are a norm but all the technology you could need is at the touch of your finger." She thrust out her smartphone to make her point. "He's going to be dealing with some pretty serious culture shock. We can't expect him to focus on dealing with all of that and go on assignments as well. He'll never get any better."

"Miss Cole, are you saying that this job is too challenging for?" he questioned. He leaned forward against the desk. "Should we hire someone else for this assignment?"

"No!" Allison cried. "I can do it!" She slammed her palms against his desk and met his glare with her own. "I can do it," she said but more calmly this time. "I am good at my job. You know this. I know this. That's why you assigned me to help Captain Rogers in the first place. What happened earlier will not happen again, that's a promise."

Directory Fury smirked slightly at her outburst. "It better not," he warned. "You're dismissed."

Allie nodded and left the room. In the hallway she let out a breath that she didn't realizing that she was holding in.

A few floors below Fury's office were Coulson and Steve. Coulson was pressing different buttons on the remote control trying to show Steve how it worked.

"So just for now, I would use the volume, channel, and power buttons," Coulson pointed to each buttons again and handed the remote over to Steve. "I will be back in the morning to take you to see Dr. Shah."

Steve gave a short nod and set the remote on the bed. He looked around the small room that would serve as his home for the time being. It was minimally furnished with just the necessities. The bed pushed up against one corner faced the TV that sat on the dresser. A small table with two chairs was along the wall with the main door. There was a small closet and bathroom for him also.

He turned to face Agent Coulson again. "Did you find anything else from the ship?" he asked. There was only one thing in particular that he was wondering about.

Coulson shook his head, "No, our top priority was finding you." When Steve's eyes dropped to the floor he added, "Is there anything you would like us to look for?"

"A-a compass," he stuttered quietly. He cleared his throat and looked up, "A compass."

"Of course." The agent nodded in reply. He took a quick look at his watch and stuck his hand out. "Welcome back Captain. I'll see you tomorrow." Dropping Steve's hand, Coulson turned and exited the room.

He stared at the door as it shut. Standing in the middle of his room, he took another look around before sitting on the bed.

Thoughts of his friends flew across his mind as his continued to stare at the door. Memories of his comrades huddled in a circle retelling stories of their victory. Red tinted smiles flashed in front of him causing his heart to squeeze painfully. His hands clenched on his knees as he tried to hold in his shaking. Every breath he took become more labored and unsteady.

Like an out of body experience he watched as his best friend fell into the darkness below him. He whole body was wracked with shaking from the emotions pouring through him.

And in the silent room, all he could hear were those last words before he crashed into the ice; "You know, I still don't know how to dance."

"I'll show you. Just be there."

Steve watched the khaki of his pants turn darker as his tears slid off his jaw.

* * *

Steve sat uncomfortably straight in the chair across from Dr. Shah. She was smiling kindly at him. He gave her a tense smile in return.

"Captain Rogers, I'm sure that you have a lot on your mind," she remarked. "So when you are here, I would like you to just talk about whatever is weighing on you. It could be anything; a dream that you had, frustration with being in this situation, a conversation that you think went poorly, a new discovery that you have made. I want you to feel comfortable talking to me about anything you would like."

He gave a terse nod, "I don't have much to discuss yet, Doctor." She smiled knowingly at him.

"Nothing? Well how about we talk with something from before?" she insisted. He looked at her curiously. "What were you like before Dr. Erskine's serum?"

"I doubt you would recognize me, Doc," he laughed. "I was a foot shorter, a hundred-fifty pounds lighter, and the biggest punk you would've come across." She gave a small chuckle at his description and waited for him to continue. "I got into a lot of fights."

Dr. Shah looked surprised at this, "Really? You? A scrawny kid picking on others? I find that hard to believe."

"No ma'am," Steve corrected. "I don't like bullies. They were the ones picking others, I was just trying to make things right. If that means me taking a punch instead of watching people getting hurt, I'd take a thousand punches."

"Oh I'm sorry for making the assumption."

He nodded and continued, "I couldn't stand being stuck in Brooklyn while my friends were leaving to do their part in the war. I tried multiple times to enlist but got 4Fed every time. But Dr. Erskine believed in me. He gave me a chance. Afterwards I was able to do my part." He sat back in his chair and the side of his mouth tipped up in a smile. "I owe that man everything."

"We all owe you a lot too. You did everything to help this country, Captain." Dr. Shah reached forward to place her hand on his. "So let us help you. It will be uncomfortable at time but I'm sure it's nothing compared to boot camp," she quipped. Steve let a soft laugh. "Just coming in everyday and talking with me will help you. And meeting with Allison will help also." She laced her fingers together on her lap as Steve furrowed his brows at her words.

"I think you'll find that she will help you more than I can, all you need to do is give her a chance."

"Doctor-," he started to respond but she cut him off.

"I think that is all for today. If you ever need anyone to talk to, I'm here. Coulson can give you my number too." Dr. Shah stood up and Steve did so also. As they walked to the door she continued, "Also, if you find you have any trouble sleeping please let me or Allison know."

She opened the door and standing in the hall was Agent Coulson.

* * *

Coulson led them Steve down the street and around the corner to a gym. Inside was a boxing ring, a few punching bags, and weights. In the back he could see two agents standing guard. He released a sigh, but was glad that he was familiar with all of the equipment.

He walked further inside and noticed an army issued duffle bag on the bench. Steve glanced at it then at the agent behind him.

"We figured you might want to relieve some stress," Coulson explained. He pointed to back, "The locker rooms are in the back."

Steve gave him a grateful smile and picked up the bag. "Thank you," he said. "I used to watch my friend box in a gym just like this before everything." He slung the duffle over his shoulder.

"Allison had to make twenty calls before she finally could find it," Coulson stated. Steve eyed at him with confusion. "Before you woke up," he began to explain, "Allison thought that you would want somewhere familiar to escape to. She knew someone who used to come here but couldn't figure out who owned it. When hours of calling multiple didn't pan out, she refused to give up. Luckily she found the owner and talked him into selling."

He paused to look around at the gym. Coulson shook his head and chuckled. "That girl doesn't give up when she knows that it will help someone." His grey eyes landed on Steve and his face turned serious again. "She's good at what she does, don't let that one mistake define her."

"I won't, sir," Steve replied.

Agent Coulson shook his hand before walking towards the door. "This is yours to use whenever you want, Captain." with that he left.

Steve quickly changed into the t-shirt and sweat pants that they had given him. They had also given him a pair of shoes to use. They were strange though. They looked like fabric ankle boots instead of shoes. Unlike the Converse that the boys in his neighborhood would wear to play in, these shoes had a thicker rubber bottom. He didn't understand why you would want to run in stiff shoes. But once he walked around in them a bit, he realized that they were quite comfy.

He started lightly punching the bag to warm up. After a while he picked up the pace. He would land two jabs with his right fist then thrust forward to land in the same spot. Punch after punch, the bag swung back and forth. Steve couldn't help the thoughts running through his head as he boxed.

Scenes of battles replayed in his mind. Over and over he saw himself punching out Hydra agents as his comrades and friends fell around him. He punched harder causing the bag to fly up on the hook. On its way down he landed a punch with his full strength sending the bag flying across the room.


	4. Chapter 3

**Author's Note:**

Thank you for reading and favoriting this! It really means a lot! This chapter there is more of Allison! I hope I have done a good job withe Steve so far. I think he would just be so overwhelmed. I hope I have gotten that across. I hope you enjoy and please follow and comment! (Don't have a beta still.)  
Marvel or any of its characters do not belong to me.

* * *

Chapter 3: April 28th

Steve spent the past few days trying to establish a routine per Dr. Shah's advice. He would wake up early and go for a run through Central Park. He found peace during mornings. The long runs would release pent up tension from the night before. Then he would stop at diner for breakfast and coffee.

One thing Steve would quickly admit was that food now was a lot better tasting and expensive. He remembered someone telling him that the prices were from inflation but he could buy a new radio for the price of breakfast! Not that he had trouble paying for anything now. S.H.I.E.L.D. set up a bank account for him with the money he earned for his active duty in the war and for when he was asleep. They also gave him a credit card, which they told him was similar to the "charge cards" that were becoming popular around the start of the war. But since Steve had never had one, he wasn't sure how to use it. In one of his sessions with Dr. Shah, she suggested that he go to Allison and ask her to show him how to use it but Steve said he could get by fine with using cash.

After his breakfast he stopped at his room to clean up before his appointment with Dr. Shah. Standing in front of the mirror, Steve reached up to touch the puffy dark circles under his eyes. The blue eyes staring back at him seemed more striking because they were bloodshot from exhaustion. His gave traveled down his face to his torso and arms. Experimentally he flexed each muscle watching as they expanded and contracted with every movement. He was so different from the sick kid who lived in Brooklyn. How could he figure out his place in this time if he couldn't even figure who he was anymore?

Letting out a deep sigh, Steve turned away from the sink to turn on the shower. After a few minutes he stripped down and stuck to feel the temperature. He turned the nozzle more towards "Hot" before deciding that it was finally warm enough. Steve quickly relieved himself before stepping into the shower. His skin turned red from the scalding water as he washed his hair.

As he continued his routine the water suddenly turned ice cold. Immediately Steve's whole body tensed up. His breath came in short pants as the memories came rushing through his mind. The sound of the engines sputtering to keep the plane up in the air, his heart squeezing in his chest as he talked to Peggy one last time, and the stabbing pain of the ice cold water surrounding him.

Steve jumped from the shower, banging his shoulder into the shower door as he tried to escape the ice-cold water pouring down. His right foot missed the mat on the floor and he slipped forward into the sink. He stretched his arms forward to cushion his impact but ended up slamming his hand into the mirror and shattering it. His other hand slipped off the sink and pushed all the bottles sitting on top of it to the floor.

Steve looked at his bleeding hand and the door hanging on one hinge. Still in a daze he lowered himself to the floor and leaned against the bathroom door trying to calm his breathing. After a few moments he heard a pounding on the bedroom door.

"Captain Rogers?" he heard Allison's voice cry from the hallway. "Are you ok? I heard some banging!" She sounded to be in a panic but Steve couldn't find his voice to tell her that he was fine.

The doorknob jiggled a bit before he heard he speak again clearer this time. "I'm coming in," she said. He heard her the padding of her feet across the carpet. "Captain Rogers?" she called out again. "Steve?"

Finally Steve snapped out of his haze to throw on his pants and shirt, not minding that they were getting wet. He turned off the shower and slowly opened the door to his bedroom. Allison was currently hunched on the ground looking under his bed. Her bottom was perched in the air and Steve's cheeks blushed when he caught himself look.

Allison turned around when she heard him clearing his throat. "Steve!" she exclaimed. Realizing that she had called him by first name she corrected, "Captain Rogers, I'm sorry for barging in but I heard some banging coming from your room and wanted to make sure that you were ok." Gesturing at his damp sweatpants and shirt she added, "I didn't realize that you were working out. Sorry for interrupting."

"It's ok." Steve raised his hand to wave it off but realized at her wide eyes that it was the hand he smashed the mirror with. "It's really nothing," he started to explain as she walked toward him taking his bloody hand in her own. "I've had worse," Steve continued.

Allison was obviously having none of it. She gave him a look letting him know that she saw through all of his bullshit. She pointed to one of the chairs and he begrudgingly sat down. Silently she went to the bathroom and gasped. Steve cringed in his seat. When she returned she had a small first aid kit.

Steve watched as Allison moved the other chair in front of his and laid a towel on her knee and placed his hand on it.

Steve immediately took his hand back, "I'm sure you have things to do, I can do this myself," Steve assured but she looked up at him with an intimidating glare.

"Look, I get it," she snapped, "you don't like me but it's either I take car of this here or we can go to medical and you can tell them what happened." She sat back and sighed deeply, "I'm sorry, really I am. This situation is completely different from anything that I have worked on. I tried the best that I could to make you comfortable when you woke up. Obviously it didn't work out like I wanted but," she paused to tuck a curl behind her ear. "I'm sorry," she said sincerely. Then changing her face to one of determination she demanded, "So are you going to medical or are you going to let me look at that?"

He held his hand out for her to take. Digging out the tweezers she picked out shards of glass. Allison didn't seem to want to talk anymore which Steve was slightly relieved about. So, he took this time to study her.

The young woman in front of him was probably around his own age, physical age that is, not actual. Her chocolate brown hair curled widely around her face to reach her collarbones. She had an expressive face, going from worried to angry then to sincere at a drop of a hat. At the moment she chewed her bottom lip in a sign of concentration. She didn't seem to wear much makeup just a bit of mascara and lipstick to accent her already plump lips. But Steve wasn't really sure since the dark red lip trend wasn't popular in this time.

His eyes moved down her curved figure. She wasn't stick skinny like the waitress at the diner that he frequented but like a pin up girl that he saw some of his army buddies hang up in the barracks. She had a smaller waist with a fuller bust and rounded hips. She wore a blue and white button up shirt with a tan skirt, with black sheer tights, and black suede flats. Allison was very attractive Steve admitted silently to himself. He then admonished himself for thinking about a colleague like that and blushed. He focused on her wrapping his hand in gauze until she finished.

The beautiful woman in front of him sighed and sat forward to put the rest of the gauze away. When she sat back in her chair and looked up at him about to speak Steve beat her to it.

"Miss Cole," he started.

"Allison," she corrected with a small smile.

"Allison," Steve started again, "I don't like that you lied to me but if we are going to work together then we need to move past this."

"Thank you," she sighed in relief. "I promise it won't happen again." She stood up and walked to the door. "And Captain Rogers,"

"Steve," he corrected her. She smiled at him again at this.

"I have some things that I researched for you that I am sure you will want to see. Can I bring them to you around 5?" she asked. The tall man in front of her nodded in response. "Ok I'll see you then." She turned the doorknob and opened the door but before leaving she added, "Oh and Steve, don't flush the toilet before taking shower it makes the shower freezing. Also, try taking a shower with the door open, you won't feel so cramped in there." With a wink and a smile she shut the door, leaving Steve with a dumbstruck look on his face.

* * *

Dr. Shah had to cancel Steve's appointment but Coulson and him set up his cellular phone. Steve was a little overwhelmed at all of the things that Coulson's phone could do so they decided to start him on a simpler version and work up to the more advanced one that Coulson had when he was ready for it.

He handed Steve a small black flip phone and explained a few features on it. He typed a few numbers that Steve might want to use before Steve realized the time and excused himself to meet with Allison. Coulson look slightly surprised at this and suggested that he should ask her to explain how to text.

Steve said he would and made his way through the halls to Allison's office. He knocked on the door twice and waited for her to answer. When he heard footsteps in the hall behind him he turned to see who it was. He was surprised to see Allison laughing with a tall gentleman.

"Come on girl," the man said, his voice was filled with swagger, "You know I looked good."

Allison laughed out loud at this. "You were wearing a clown tie and giant Ronald McDonald shoes with a suit! You looked ridiculous!" She was laughing all the way to her door. "Steve, hi," she smiled brightly at him. He was a little surprised; she had only ever scowled and glared at him. Her whole face lit up when she smiled at him. Steve blushed slightly. "Trip this is Steve Rogers," Allison gestured to Steve.

The man next to her held out his hand. He was about Steve's height and had a shaved head and beard. "Agent Antoine Triplett," he introduced himself. "It's an honor to meet you. My grandfather almost cried on the phone when I told him that you are alive."

"I'm sorry but I don't follow," Steve gave them both a confused look and asked, "who is your grandfather?"

"Trip's grandfather is Gabe Jones," Allison explained. Steve's whole body tensed up and his eyes grew wide. "This is what I wanted to meet with you about, I have the files on the Howling Commandos."


	5. Chapter 4

**Author's note:**

Thanks to all of you who have read and favorited the story! I am surprised that there are so many, I thought it would be like 3. Haha. This chapter we see some more Steve and Allie, and also we learn a bit about what happened to out commandos. I couldn't find a way that I liked to explain in detail what happened to all of them. So for now I just touched about it lightly and later in the story we will get more details. One more chapter till the Avengers story! :D  
Again, I don't have a beta so all mistakes are mine. If you like or have any helpful comments or suggestions please review!

Marvel or any of its characters do not belong to me.

* * *

Chapter 4:

With shaking hands Steve opened the first manila folder in front of him. It had "CLASSIFIED" stamped over the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo like the others. His eyes quickly scanned the page quickly before stopping on a red stamp marked across the bottom. "DECEASED" it read. He took a shaky breath, trying to calm himself as he set that folder aside.

Reading through each folder was like getting punched in the gut. The pain intensified with each red stamp. Steve finally reached the last folder. He had read all about his Commandos. He was surprised to read that Dernier had married and returned to France to take over the family business until he passed away from old age. He gave a small smile when he read that Falsworth had become a popular name in Parliament and worked security for the Queen till taking a bullet for her. Gabe had become a tenured professor at Howard University and still served on the Board of Trustees.

When Steve reached the Peggy's folder he felt the air being knocked out of him as he read that she had gotten married too. His fingers crushed the paper underneath them before he let go. She had gotten married to a co-worker and started a family. But that didn't seem to slow her down; Peggy had continued her career with the S.S.R. even after she had kids as an advisor.

Steve's head dropped to the desk after he had read all of the folders. His shoulders shook with every labored breath. He felt like his stomach was twisted in knots and that his heart was going to give out.

He gave a watery smile to the ceiling and let out a quiet sob. He had missed all of their lives. They were dead or dying and here he was reading about them like characters in a book. Was he supposed to just forget about them? He couldn't.

Steve quickly stood up, the chair falling over behind him. He stepped around it and started pacing. He couldn't forget about them. He couldn't live without them. He couldn't even fall asleep without seeing them in his dreams or when he closed his eyes. They were his friends; he would never forget them.

But hadn't they forgotten about him? He stopped pacing and stared wide eyed at the wall in front of him. They had forgotten about him. They had moved on, fallen in love, got married, and started a family. They lived their brilliant lives without him.

That doesn't mean that they had forgotten him though. Steve clenched his fists feeling angry with himself for even thinking those things about his friends. They wouldn't forget him. And he wouldn't forget them. He would live this new life with them in mind. He would live being the man that they knew.

But could he still be that man? Did he even know who that man was?

Again, he felt the frustration rise within him. Steve thrust his fist into the wall in front of him. Suddenly he realized what he had done and slowly pulled his fist out of the wall. He looked through the hole that he had created to see a very frightened looking office worker staring back at him.

The door to the office flew open and Allison rushed to him. "Steve, oh my god!" she exclaimed looking at him and then at the wall. Her mouth slowly dropped open. "Are you okay?" she asked panic lacing her voice.

Steve's face flushed bright red at not being able to control his emotions. He hurriedly wiped the dust from his hand on his pants. "Y-yeah," he stuttered. Then briefly looked at the wall then back at Allison. He rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm really sorry about that. I don't know what came over me," he admitted.

"No, it's fine," she said. She gave a soft laugh and looked up at with a wide smile, "You're actually not the first person who has punched a hole in my office." She stepped around him to look through the hole that he had made. "Although," she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder, "You are the first one who has actually punched all the way through it."

Steve chuckled at that. "Well, nevertheless I'll patch it up for you."

She waved off his offer, "Oh, you don't need to do that, Coulson will send someone to do it." She opened a drawer and grabbed her purse from it. "Tripp and I were planning on getting some dinner in town if you want to come with?"

"I don't want to intrude," Steve stated. Allison lifted her eyebrow at him.

"Tripp and I are not an item if that's what you're thinking."

"N-no!" Steve croaked. He rubbed his bicep in a self-conscious motion. His voiced had almost cracked. She rolled her eyes at him and laughed.

"So, Captain," she chuckled at him, "are you coming?"

The pizza place that they were going to wasn't very far away so they had decided to walk. Steve was happy to be walking around the city without an agent on his trail. Even on his runs through Central Park agents were strategically hidden so that keep a watch on him. Not that he would try to run anywhere he didn't have anywhere to go.

Allison slapped him on the arm excitedly and stopped to point at the building across the street. "I love this building," she sighed contently, "One day when I have enough money I'm going to live in it."

Steve looked at the brownstone houses all lined in a row. Each one had steps leading up to the arched doorway. The ironwork covering the windows twirled this way and that in delicate patterns. A few houses had ivy growing up the side adding more character to the buildings.

"They almost never go on sale though," she grumbled. She looked up at Steve out of the corner of her eye. "Can I tell you a secret?" she whispered. He nodded, a smile slowly forming on her face. "A couple years ago, one was on sale so Tripp and I pretended to be a couple and went to the open house!" She threw her head back and laughed at the memory. "But Tripp had some bad Chinese food a few hours before and farted so loud the whole house heard!"

Allison was bent over she was laughing so hard. Steve couldn't help but laugh too. When she finally stood back up, she had tears in her eyes. She wiped her eyes with her sleeves and gave a content sigh. One tear escaped and had rolled down her cheek. Steve reached up and wiped it away with his thumb.

She looked up at him with raised eyebrows and wide. Her jaw went slack with surprise. He quickly drew his hand away and into his pocket, lowering his gaze to the ground embarrassed. Allie shook her head slightly at him.

"But you can't tell him that I told you that," she quickly added, "He'll kill me or worse." She gave a thoughtful pause and then amended, "Probably worse."

Steve and Allison walked the rest of the way in silence occasionally commenting on a passerby. Allison liked to guess what people were scurrying past them to do. Steve added a few of his theories too. It was nice, he thought. He hadn't felt this at ease since he woke up.

They reached the pizza shop and snagged a booth in the back. The restaurant was small with a few wooden booths and counter where customers could look behind and see the pizza being made. After they sat down Allison got up to order their food and returned with beer bottles in hand. She handed one to Steve and set the other two on her side of the booth.

"Let me give Tripp a call, he isn't usually this late," she said. Steve a sip of his beer and looked around the room, trying to give her some sense of privacy while she was on the phone.

He could picture him and Bucky coming to a place like this if they had lived in this time together. After classes or work they would come here for a quick bite to eat and a cold beer. Bucky would probably talk about a beautiful dame that he had met earlier and her friend that was "dying" to meet Steve. He gave a bittersweet smile at this before shaking his head trying to rid himself of the intense emotions inside of him. He jumped slightly when he felt Allison's hand rest on top of his.

"Are you ok?" she looked at him with concern in her eyes.

"Yeah," he nodded and took a deep breath. "I was just thinking that this would be some place that my friend would have liked."

"I'm sure I would've liked your friend then," she smiled back at him. "If there is one thing I love more than anything its pizza." She laughed at herself and then patted his hand before taking a sip of her beer.

Now that her hand was gone, Steve's hand felt strangely cold. A comfortable warmth had settled over him when she placed hers over his. His finger twitched somewhat before he covered it by taking another swig of his beer.

"What did Tripp have to say?" Steve asked trying to distract himself. Luckily the pizza was brought to the table just then. His stomach growled loudly and they both laughed before grabbing a piece.

"He was just called out on a mission so he won't be coming," she explained. She then took a big bite of pizza and held up her finger. She chewed and swallowed before gesturing at the pizza and saying, "I hope your hungry because I ordered a large."

Steve quickly swallowed and replied, "I could eat the whole thing. I don't remember pizza being this good." Allison gave out a big laugh, her eyes crinkling at the sides.

"My dad tried to eat a whole one once," she laughed. He quirked an eyebrow at her, silently asking her to explain. "He made a bet with my brother about some football game and lost. The loser had to eat a whole pizza in an hour," she explained. Her eyes sparkled with laughter as she told the story. "He obviously couldn't do it so he would wrap slices in napkins and shove them into his pockets. On his way home he gave them to a few homeless people. My brother saw this and from that day forward swore that my dad was the biggest cheater that he had ever met!"

"Your dad sounds like a great guy," Steve said giving her a polite smile before starting on his fourth slice.

Allison looked out the window wistfully and then turned back to pick the pepperoni off her pizza. "Yeah he was a great guy. Never was a good loser but yeah, he was awesome," she trailed off. She looked up to see Steve's embarrassed and slightly horrified face before quickly explaining, "He died when I was in college, about seven years ago now."

Steve set his pizza down and ran his hand through his hair. "Allison, I'm sorry to hear about that."

"It's ok. He is the reason that I went into this profession. I think about him all the time," she gave a sad smile at that. "My dad was in the army," she explained while fiddling with the beer label, tearing small pieces off of the bottle. "He was captured about a month before he was going to return from his second tour in Afghan. He was a POW for 6 months before they finally made a trade to release him and a few others for some of their own. When he came back he wasn't the same. He went to therapy but it was really hard for him to adjust, he needed more. One fourth of July the fireworks scared him so much that he got his gun from our house and hid in our bushes muttering things about 'those damn turban-heads.'"

Allison let out a heavy sigh and continued, "Everything just snowballed from there. He was so embarrassed that he drank all the time. I was really nervous about moving away to college and leaving my mom because he had become really violent and angry. On Thanksgiving break I confronted him about his drinking and he didn't say anything, he just backhanded me across the face. So, I left. I went back to college. I got a call the next morning from my mom, apparently my dad drove after me wanting to apologize but his car swerved into a tree." Allison closed her eyes for a moment before opening them again. "I don't want anyone to struggle like my family did, like my dad did. Therapy helps a lot but sometimes you need something extra, so that's me, the something extra," she smiled brightly at him, "So if you need something and think it's stupid, just come and ask me."

Allie reached out to pat his hand again before reaching for Tripp's beer and taking a long drink. "What a fun and up-beat thing to talk about, Allie," she laughed at herself.

"Thank you," Steve said. She gave him a confused look while she munched on her pizza. "For being my something extra," he explained.

She blushed slightly and said, "Whenever you need something, Captain, you just let me know."

He smiled easily back her. "Actually," he confessed and pulled the phone out of his pocket. "Coulson gave me this cellular phone and I have no idea how to use it. It keeps buzzing." He shook his head bashfully at his own cluelessness and slid the phone to her.

"Of course," she responded. She then stood up and slid into his side of the booth. "It'll be easier this way," she said.

Steve watched in wonder as she quickly manipulated his phone to call, text, and even check the weather. Her leg and arm were pressed up against him in the small booth. The warm feeling from earlier washed over him. His lips twitched up in a smile at the comfortable feeling of her next to him. Although that quickly turned to embarrassment when she accidentally brushed her breast against him reaching for her drink.

She showed Steve how to call someone and leave a message, which they can listen to later. He felt bad for calling Coulson so many times but he never picked up. She proposed that he probably had his phone on silent since he usually has meetings with Director Fury at night. Allie then showed Steve how to send a text message, quickly typing an apology to Coulson about "ramming his phone." She had him send her a text, which Steve was embarrassed at how slow he was at it compared to her. She assured him that she wasn't that fast at first either.

After a few more practice texts back and forth between the two of them, they decided to leave. Steve took out his wallet ready to pay the check when Allison told him that she paid when she ordered but the next time was on him. He argued for a few moments grumbling how "his mother raised a gentlemen" before he conceded to buy next time.

Back at HQ, Steve bid Allie a goodnight and thanked her for the night. For the first time since he woke up, Steve slept peacefully.


	6. Chapter 5

**Author's Note:**

Thanks to everyone who has followed and favorited. And also thanks to my silent readers out there. I still feel your love. This is the last chapter before the Avengers. I think that will probably be split into two chapters. I don't want to rewrite the whole movie into the story so I'll probably only be picking out certain scenes to write.

Again, I have no beta so please bare with my mistakes.

Marvel or any of its characters do not belong to me.

* * *

Chapter 5: April 29th

The next morning Steve sat relaxed in Dr. Shah's office ready to have his meeting with her. The morning had been swell so far but he had a sinking feeling that it wasn't going to go well anymore. He had woken up feeling refreshed. His morning run had been grueling but satisfying. And his shower afterwards didn't make him panic like usual, thanks to Allison's tips from the other day.

"Good morning Captain Rogers," Dr. Shah said as she entered the room. "I'm sorry about having to cancel on you yesterday but Miss Cole told me that you two were able to meet instead."

"It's not a problem. She showed me how to use my new cellular phone," he explained.

"Splendid!" She reached over to her desk and pulled a business card out. Handing it to him she said, "Here, it has my personal number on it too. So, she helped you with your phone. Is that all that you two covered?"

Steve's jaw clenched together. "No." He dropped his eyes to inspect his shoes. "She gave me some information about my friends," he whispered.

"I know that this is an uncomfortable topic for you but it will help to talk about it..." she trailed off looking at him to see if he would allow her to continue.

He took a deep breath before giving her a short nod signaling to her that she could resume.

"What were you feeling when you received this information? Why don't you walk me through your emotions as you read the files?" she suggested. Her voice was always calm and soothing but more so now. She was like a mother calming a child after a nightmare.

"It was painful," he started lamely. He closed his eyes so she couldn't see the emotion in them. "It was like being beat up in the alleys over and over again but this time I had no energy to get up and fight back. To read that my friends ha-had," he paused to clear his throat, "that they had passed was horrible. I should've been there for them. I should've been beside them the whole way. At their weddings, their children's births, at their funerals. But I wasn't. I left them…" he trailed off slowly, opening his eyes to see Dr. Shah watching him patiently.

"Yes, you left them. But it wasn't without sacrifice and you shouldn't forget that," she smiled softly at him. "And you didn't leave them all alone, they had each other. You brought them together."

"I don't mean to say that they couldn't live their lives without me because I don't think that. It-it's just hard to see all of their accomplishments written in a file." Steve paused to rub his hand through his hair.

"It's like only reading the headlines in a newspaper. You don't really get the whole story. But you must know that losing you wasn't easy."

"I know," he groaned. "The moment I start to think, 'Did they just forget about me?' I start to feel like a jerk. I wouldn't want them to not have lived their lives because they were in mourning."

"Do you think that any of them would want you to live now in mourning of them?" she asked with a pointed look.

"No, no, of course not," he quickly replied. He took a deep sigh. "But I can't just move on. It feels like a few days ago that we were fighting the war together and now…"

"And now they're gone and it hurts," she finished for him. "I don't expect that it will ever stop hurting but it won't always be this intense." Dr. Shah reached out to pat his knee, "But you should take this chance, Steve. Live this life making your friends proud. That's what they would've wanted for you."

* * *

After his appointment with Dr. Shah, Steve was tense but needed to work off some stress. He felt a little bit better from talking about it but working through it dredged up all of that emotion that he had pushed away for a bit. So he was on the way to the gym when he passed Agent Triplett.

"Steve," he called out. His big smile lighting up his face and his big hand stretched out ready to shake Steve's hand. "Sorry for ditching you and Allison. I hope that she didn't talk your ear off the whole time."

Steve let out a laugh. "Whenever she took a breath I was able to get a few words in," he joked.

Tripp smiled in response and gestured to his gym bag, "You on your way to the gym? Because if you need a partner to spar with, I know a guy who's available." He then pointed to himself to show that he was the guy.

"That'd be great."

"I promise to take it easy on you old man," Tripp laughed as he clapped a hand on his shoulder.

Steve was glad to be sparring with someone instead of just mindlessly beating a bag. It was too easy to let his mind wonder to painful memories when it was just him and the punching bag. He had to really focus when fighting with Tripp because he style was so different from anything that he had ever seen.

In the war the fighting was pretty straight. It was all about who could punch the hardest and dodge the fastest. It wasn't as basic as boxing but the moves that Tripp was doing were so intricate. He would punch and kick using his whole body.

At one time Steve had knocked him off his feet and onto his back. Before he could hit him while he was down, Tripp had used his arms to push upwards and kick Steve's chest sending him back a bit. He used the driving force of a flip or turns to add more momentum to his hits.

Tripp did manage to land a few punches and kicks on Steve. He would have a few bruises on his shoulders and torso. But his opponent would definitely be hurting worse the next day. He made sure to pull his punches to keep from breaking any of Tripp's ribs.

They were at the water fountain out of breath when Steve asked, "Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"Well when you're fighting against super soldiers you have to be able to mix it up," he gave a cocky smirk. "Nah, man, I mix a lot of fighting styles together. You know? Like MMA."

"MMA?"

"Yeah, Mixed Martial Arts. How 'bout this? If you ever want to break out of your Rocky routine, give me a call. We'll see if an old dog can learn some new tricks," He shook Steve's hand and gathered his things to leave.

Steve wiped the sweat from his brow and walked over to his bag to get his hand wraps out. He saw a blinking light at the bottom and dug his phone out. There was a small digital picture of an envelope on it. Remembering what Allison had taught him he pressed a few buttons until the text appeared on his screen.

 _Hey Steve. I dropped a history book by your door. Read the first chapter and we'll meet later to talk it over. -Allison_

Steve slowly typed his response back.

 _Thank you. Also, who or what is Rocky?_

He sent the message and put his phone down to start wrapping his hands. He had just finished wrapping his right hand when he heard his phone beep.

 _Rocky Balboa is a boxer in the Rocky movies. We'll watch them at some point but not the fifth one. It's horrible! See you at 4. :)_

Steve sent another reply thanking her for explaining what "Rocky" was and finished wrapping his hands.

He stood in front of the punching bag and started hitting it with all of his strength. After a few moments his mind started wandering through different memories and after every flash of his friends face or sound of voice his punches hit faster and harder.

After one particularly painful memory of him talking with Peggy while he was on the plane, he punched so hard the bag flew off the chain and across the gym. Sand spilled out of it and onto the floor. Steve leaned over to pick up one of the many extra bags that he had laid out earlier so he could easily replace them and keep going. He had just started to hit the bag again when he heard a voice call out.

"Trouble sleeping?" Steve stopped and turned to see Directory Fury standing in the doorway.

"I slept for 70 years, sir. I think I've had my fill," he responded in between punches. Apparently the agents watching him had noticed that his runs at four in the morning weren't because he was a morning person but because he couldn't sleep for more than a few hours each night.

"You should be out celebrating. Seeing the world." Fury's voice became louder as he walked closer.

"When I went under the world was at war, I wake up they say we've won. They didn't say what we lost."

"We've made some mistakes along the way. Some very recently." The director pulled out a folder under his arm.

Steve noticed and asked, "You here with a mission, sir?" Fury nodded in response. "Trying to get me back in the world?"

"Trying to save it," he responded. He opened the folder and held it out for Steve to take. A picture of the Tesseract was staring right at him.

"Hydra's secret weapon," he said.

"Howard fished that out of the ocean when he was looking for you. He thought what we think; the Tesseract could be the key to unlimited sustainable energy. That is something the world sorely needs." As he spoke Steve felt dread pool in his stomach, nothing good comes from the Tesseract, he knew that first hand.

"Who took it from you?" He handed the folder back, a serious expression written across his face.

"He's called Loki," Fury explained. "He's not from around here. There's a lot we'll have to bring you up to speed on if your in. Things Ms. Cole won't be able to tell you." He paused to shake his head. "The world has gotten stranger than you already know."

Steve instantly thought of the weird clothes he had seen people were in the park, like the one girl who looked like she had skinned a pink bear and made boots out of them. "At this point I doubt anything would surprise me."

"Ten bucks says you're wrong. There is a debriefing packet waiting in your room if you're in," he called out to Steve as he started to take the sand bags back to storage. "Is there anything that you can tell us about the Tesseract that we ought to know now?"

"You should have left it in the ocean," he grumbled.

Fury nodded and walked towards the door. "We need you on this Captain. Coulson will get from you headquarters in an hour." And with that he was gone.

Steve let out a long sigh. He finished putting the rest of the bags away before he collected his bag. As he was walking down the street he paused to pull out his phone to call Allison. He couldn't find a phone booth to duck into so that he wasn't bothering the other people on the sidewalk so he decided to call her while he was walking like he had seen so many other people do.

It rang a few times before she picked up.

"Hey Steve what's up?" she asked.

"Uh… What do you mean? Like the sky?" He heard her laugh into the phone. Her laughter was charming, a little too loud but it made whoever heard it smile too. "I don't get it," he frowned.

"'What's up' is just a way of asking 'what's going on'," she explained. He could hear the smile in her voice. "But what do you need?"

"Fury just stopped in to give me an assignment so I won't be able to make our meeting later," he told her. It seems that no matter what time period he was in, he always had to miss his dates with people. Not that meeting with Allison was a date, although he didn't know if he would be against going on one with her.

"Oh, ok," she said with disappointment apparent in her voice. "Do you have nay idea when you'll be back?"

"No, I don't really know what I've been called in for, he didn't really give me a time frame."

"Ok, well, they play movies in Central Park on every other Thursday and this upcoming Thursday they're playing the 'Wizard of Oz'. If you're back in time maybe we can go? I know that movie was big back then. I thought that maybe something would be nice."

He smiled at her thoughtfulness. It was her job to push him out of his comfort zone and teach him all of these new things but she had found something that was familiar to him so that he could relax.

"If I'm back, I would really like to go."

"Alright!" she chirped happily. "If you don't make it, then you have to buy popcorn next time."

"Sounds like a deal," he chuckled. "I'll see you around."

"Steve," she blurted. There was worry in her voice. "Please be careful ok?"

"I will," he promised. With that he said goodbye and slipped his phone in his bag.


	7. Chapter 6

**Author's Note:  
**

Here we are! The Avengers! I skipped some parts so you wouldn't be reading a written version of the movie but the parts that I did use are taken straight from the movie. I hope you enjoy this chapter. The next chapter will probably be out soon as I have written some of it already, I just need to figure out one part of it. Thank you again to people who have read this! Again, I have no beta and I was typing parts of this as I was watching the movie so I'm sure I skipped over words or used the wrong "there" at some point. Please forgive me!

Again, Marvel, any of it's story lines or characters do not belong to me.

* * *

Chapter 6:

Since her meeting with Steve was canceled, Allison decided to take the rest of the day off. She could finish her work at home on her couch in her pajamas. She only needed to finish taking notes on the next chapters of the history book that she would cover with Steve when he comes back.

Allison really enjoyed her job. Working with SHIELD was not something that she would have picked for a future job but it had her working with a variety of people and doing a bunch of different things.

Usually she helped agents get ready for long-term undercover missions. She researched the culture and history of the place that they were going to and put all the information together for them to learn. Even though she wasn't the one going on the mission she liked learning all about other cultures and their customs. Most recently she spent time preparing agents for a mission in Budapest.

And when those agents came back they met with her and Dr. Shah. They were a good team. Dr. Shah would meet with them to sort through the emotional effects of the mission and she would help with the social effects. Her job was to help reintegrate these people into normal life.

She would come up with back-stories for them to explain what they were up to for those agents who had family and friends outside of SHIELD. She helped them break any habits that they picked up on their mission. She brought them up to speed on pop culture or major events that they might have missed so blending in and having a normal conversation was easy for them.

It was a lot of research a lot of the time but in some way she was helping them have normal lives. For agents and soldiers it's hard to come back and have normal lives. Not only do they have to deal with the flash backs and triggers that come with PTSD but relating to people is difficult for them too. Being in battle makes you forget the frivolities of life. These agents fought for their lives every second and then they come back and can't get through small talk without being frustrated. For Allie, being able to help them get used to everyday life is worth the hours of research because that was what her dad couldn't cope with.

Working with Steve was combining both aspects of her job. She was researching American customs and history like she was preparing an agent for a mission but it was to help reintegrate someone to come back home.

Allison walked into a café to get a coffee before continuing on her way home. While in line she thought about Steve. It was easy to talk to him, well it was the few times she talked to him where he wasn't angry with her. At the diner he seemed to be genuinely listening to her. His beautiful blue eyes were staring intently at her as he listened to her ramble. She blushed thinking about how handsome he was and then her cheeks grew redder as she remembered herself telling him about her dad.

There were only a few people who knew the whole story. It wasn't something that she liked talking about and people didn't like hearing about it. But Steve didn't just listen but he told her that he appreciated her sharing that with him. She couldn't help but smile at the memory.

Allie grabbed her drink and continued walking down the street with a goofy smile on her face. A few people were staring at her like she had grown another head but she didn't care. She had asked Captain America on a date. She laughed and a few other people turned to start at her.

She didn't really ask him out on a date. It was a friend-date. She had gone on tons of friend-dates with Tripp. Oh, man, he is going to make fun of her for this when he finds out.

Not that it was a real date, she reminded herself. But if it were she wouldn't be mad about it. How could anyone be mad about going on a date with that man? He was gorgeous, and polite, and so muscle-y. When she wrapped his hand after he fell into the bathroom mirror she couldn't help but appreciate how his damp t-shirt had stuck to his ripped chest and arms. How would it feel to rub her hands over those arms and kiss his lips?

She stopped at the crosswalk and waited for the light to change. She shouldn't be having these thoughts about him. She rubbed her face and let out a frustrated growl. The old lady next to her gave Allie an agitated look. At that moment she noticed that the light had changed and she scurried across the street and away from the angry old woman.

* * *

Steve was exhausted and agitated. After his fight with Loki in Germany, then his fight with Tony and Thor in the woods, and then his argument with Tony and Dr. Banner he just wanted to figure out what was going on.

He sighed as he walked through the halls of the Helicarrier. Tony had a point, Fury wasn't telling them everything. How could they be expected to do their jobs without all the information?

If all Fury wanted was a sustainable power source, he should have just called Stark. Steve didn't like the new Stark Tower in New York but he did hear people talking about how it was powered by the arc-reactor, not that he knew what that was. But he understood enough to know that SHIELD should have called Stark in to work on the Tesseract project if all they wanted was clean energy.

He also didn't understand why Loki would have given himself up so easily. He obviously thought that he was strong enough to take on them all, that much was clear after the speech he gave Fury. Maybe there was something on the ship that Loki wanted to use. At the moment, Steve was thinking that Loki was planning on use everyone against them. If they were all fighting each other, he would have less of a fight. But Steve was hoping that that was Loki's only plan, that there wasn't anything else on the ship that he could use to destroy Earth.

He walked through the halls before turning the corner and seeing doors marked, "Storage." He peered into the small windows before seeing a room that wasn't lit up. He tried to open the door but it was locked. Using all of his strength he pushed it open and looked inside to see agents patrolling the room.

Silently, he jumped up to the walkway above the room and knocked them out. He jumped back down and started going through the room looking for something but he didn't know what. He walked past hundreds of crates and metal cases before starting to open them one by one.

After what seemed to be the hundredth case he found what he was looking for, Hydra weapons. Lying inside of them were masks and guns that Hydra used with the power from the cube. Steve's heart dropped to his stomach. He had trusted SHIELD. He had trusted Director Fury and Coulson. They had to know about this. But did everyone know? Dr. Shah? Allison?

He picked up the weapon and marched angrily to the lab to show Tony that he was right. When he got there he saw Stark and Dr. Banner confronting Director Fury

"What is Phase 2?" he heard Tony ask.

"Phase 2 is SHIELD uses the cube to make weapons. He slammed the weapon on the table. "Sorry, the computer was working a little slow for me."

"Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract," the Director said trying to calm him down. Behind him Tony swiveled the screen around to show blueprints of weapons.

"I'm sorry Nick, what were you lying?"

"I was wrong, Director," Steve said, "the world hasn't changed a bit."

At that moment, Thor and Natasha entered the room.

"Did you know about this?" Dr. Banner asked her.

"Do you want to think about removing yourself from this environment, Doctor?" she asked.

"I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed."

"Loki is manipulating you-"

"And you've been doing what exactly?" he demanded.

"You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you," she countered. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, and I'm not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy." He stepped over to the screen, "I would like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction."

"Because of him," Fury growled out and pointed back at Thor.

"Me?" the god asked.

"Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that only are we not along but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned."

"My people have no quarrel with the Earth," Thor argued.

"A nuclear deterrent? Great, 'cause that always calms everything right down," Tony said sarcastically.

"Remind me again how you made your fortune Stark?" the Director asked.

Steve stepped into the conversation, "I'm sure that if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck-deep-"

"Wait, hold on. How is this now about me?" Tony demanded.

"I'm sorry, isn't everything?" Steve quipped.

As the others stepped closer and started getting angrier the argument grew bigger. Voices got louder until everyone was talking over each other. Everyone was adding their opinion in each argument till it became one big fight. Behind them the gem in Loki's scepter started glowing.

"You speak of control yet you court chaos," Thor's voice boomed over everyone else's.

"That's his M.O. isn't it?" Doctor Banner asked. "I mean what are we, a team? No, we're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're a time bomb."

Fury stepped towards the doctor, "You need to step away.

"Why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam," Tony said.

"You know damn well why," Steve brushed Tony's hand off his shoulder. "Back off."

"I'm starting to want you to make me," he countered.

"Yeah, big man in a suit of armor. Take that off and what are you?"

"Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist."

"I've known guys with none of that worth ten of you. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on the wire and let the other guy crawls over you."

"I think I'd just cut the wire."

"Always have a way out. You know you may not be a threat but you better stop pretending to be a hero."

"A hero?" Tony asked, "Like you? You're a laboratory experiment, Rogers. Everything special about you came out of a bottle. "

"Put on the suit, let's go a few rounds."

Beside them Thor laughed. "You people are so petty, and tiny."

"Agent Romanoff, would you escort Doctor Banner back to his-" Fury started to say before he was cut off.

"Where?" Banner asked. "You rented my room."

"The cell was just in case-"

"In case you needed to kill me, but you can't. I know. I tried." Everyone turned to look at the doctor. "I got low, didn't see an end. So, I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping people. I was good. Until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone at risk. You want to know my secret Agent Romanoff? You want to know me secret?"

"Dr. Banner," Steve said, "put down the scepter."

He looked down at his hand surprised to see himself holding the scepter. At that moment the computer beeped letting them know that they had found the cube. Everyone argued over who would go after it and just when it seemed like they would go to blows, it did.

The room exploded, glass and metal flying everywhere. In their earpieces they heard Hill telling Fury that the engine was down. Tony and Steve ran together towards the engine.

"I'll meet you at engine three!" Tony yelled. Suddenly a roar echoed through the ship and the two men gave each other a frightened look. The Hulk had been awakened.

Steve ran towards the engine knocking down the men who were shooting at him as he went. He walked outside to see a huge hole had been blasted in the ship. He had no idea how to start to fix this.

"Stark," he yelled into his comms, "Stark I'm here!" He heard Tony's voice in his ear talking about some technology mumbo-jumbo. He followed the only part of Stark's directions that he understood. Jumping up to the platform above him he pulled out a panel that glowed with energy. "It seems to run on some form of electricity," Steve said, at a loss of words.

"Well, you're not wrong," Tony sighed. "I need you to make sure all the relays- the red wires are connected."

"Okay, the relays are intact. What's are next move?"

"Even if I clear the rotors this thing won't re-engage without a jump," Tony explained. "I'm going to have to get in there and push."

"If that thing gets up to speed you'll get shredded."

"That stator control unit can reverse the polarity long enough to disengage maglev and that could-"

"Stark, speak English!" Steve's head was getting dizzy trying to understand what Tony was saying.

"Do you see that red lever? When I say so, pull it"

Steve jumped over to it. A few rogue agents came out at the moment and tried to throw a grenade at the engine. He leaped into the air and swatted it out of the way. He then knocked a few of the agents down. He ducked for cover but they were still shooting. He grabbed the gun that one of them had dropped and shot back. The Helicarrier started to dip as Steve stepped backwards he slide on some debris and fell off the ship. Luckily he caught onto a wire that was hanging off.

He heard Tony yelling for help in his ear as he struggled to climb back on to the platform. Finally he pulled himself up and switched the lever. Tony flew past him to know out the last remaining shooter.

"Agent Coulson is down," Fury's voice rang through Steve's ear. He ran his hand shakily through his hair. Tony looked at him with pain in his eyes as he gave his head a small shake in disbelief.

* * *

Later on after he had been cleaned up and checked out by medical Steve found Tony looking out over the hole where Loki's cell had been. Fury's words from earlier echoed in his head:

 _"The Avengers initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to and fight the battles that we never could. Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea, in heroes."_

Steve ran his fingers through his hair. It was never easy when someone died in battle. He thought of Bucky falling in front of him and his heart squeezed in pain at the memory. You could lose your best friend, or someone you barely knew, either way it hurt. And he knew that Tony was hurting too.

"Was he married," Steve called out across the room to Tony.

"No, there was a cellist I think," he responded quietly.

"I'm sorry he seemed like a good guy." Steve had only talked to him a few times while at headquarters but Coulson was always happy to help him. Sometimes a little too excited.

"He was an idiot."

"Why? For believing?" Steve crossed his arms against his chest.

"For taking on Loki alone."

"He was doing his job," he defended.

Tony scoffed at him, "He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have-"

"Sometimes there isn't a way out, Tony."

"Right, I've heard that before," he walked past him.

"Is this your first time losing a soldier?" Steve asked him.

"We are not soldiers," he growled anger and hurt blazed in his eyes. "I'm not marching to Fury's fife."

"Neither am I. He's got the same blood on his hands that Loki does," Steve ran a hand through his hair obviously frustrated with all of the arguing. Tony was staring at the stain of blood on the wall. "But right now, we got to put that behind us and get this done. Loki needs a power source. If we can put together a list-"

Tony snapped his head up to look at Steve and said, "He made it personal."

"That's not the point."

"That is the point. That's Loki's point," Tony argued. "He hit us all right where we live. Why?"

"To tear us apart," Steve answered. He had been saying that was Loki's game the whole time.

"Yeah, divide and conquer is great, but he knows he has to take us out to win, right? That's what he wants. He wants to beat us, he wants to be seen doing it. He wants an audience."

"Right. I caught his act in Stuttgart," Steve agreed.

"Yeah, that's just previews. This is opening night. And Loki, he's a full-tilt diva right? He wants flowers, he wants parades. He wants a monument built to the sky with his name plastered-" he stopped, realizing what Loki's plan was. "Son of a bitch."

They both ran down the stairs and down the halls. They made a few turns before ending up in the locker rooms both of them going to their suits.

"I'll get Widow and someone to fly the plane," Steve said while pulling on his uniform.

"If I can't fix this up I might need a ride," Tony said taking tools out of a box to fix his suit. A voice came from the suit listing all of the damage and possible recalibration that needed to be done to get it in working order.

After he finished changing Steve went to medical to talk to Natasha. Hawkeye was there too and he seemed to be out from under Loki's mind control. She couldn't fly a jet but Clint said that he could do it. Steve looked at Natasha silently asking if he was ok to join them in the battle. She gave him a small nod yes.

Once they had all suited up, they met back with Tony who was putting on the Iron Man suit. He told them to meet him at the Tower because he had to switch suits. They all nodded in agreement and made their way to a jet. After kicking the pilot out, they flew the jet to New York City, ready to beat Loki to the ground.


	8. Chapter 7

**Author's Note:** **  
**

Another chapter so soon! :D This is the last section of the Avengers movie. Like chapter 6, there are scenes that come directly from the movie and I skipped a bit of the fighting mostly because I don't feel confident enough to write it but also there is just so much of it that it might get boring. The story will continue more after this so don't be thinking that it's over yet. There will be more of Steve's struggle and more development in his and Allison's feelings as it continues. I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Again no beta. And Marvel, any of it's story lines, or characters do not belong to me.

* * *

Chapter 7:

Steve, Hawkeye, and Black Widow arrived at the city a bit after Tony did but it looks like they were too late. Loki had opened the portal. A blue beam of light was shooting up from the top of the Tower. They could see Tony trying to fight off the monsters that were coming out of the hole in the sky. He couldn't kill them fast enough as they started to attack the civilians below.

"Stark we're on you three headed northeast," Widow said to him on the comms.

"What did you stop for drive thru'?" he responded. "Swing up Park. I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

Clint maneuvered the jet where Stark wanted them and Natasha gripped the controls for the guns. All of a sudden, Tony's suit and a bunch of monsters flew past them. Natasha took out most of them and they crashed to the ground below. They then pulled up to the Tower where Loki and Thor were fighting.

Natasha locked the guns on Loki and started firing. He turned from his fight with Thor to shoot a beam of energy at the jet's engine, blowing it up.

"Hold on!" Clint yelled as they spiraled down to the ground below. Steve grabbed onto the ceiling trying to stay upright. They crashed hard on the ground sliding into a building.

Steve pointed at the Tower and shouted, "We got to get back up there!"

But they only took a few steps before stopping in their tracks. A ginormous monster descended from the sky. It swam through the air like some sort of fish. It crashed through the sides of buildings and the aliens that were holding on to it, jumped off and landed on the ground in front of them or on buildings.

"Stark are you seeing this?" Steve asked.

"Seeing," Tony's voice rang in their ears, "Still working on believing."

* * *

Allie sat at her desk, reading through a history book on Saudi Arabia, pausing to take notes every so often. She heard the PA system click on and a voice come on:

"All personal, code 341. I repeat all personal code 341."

Allison rolled her eyes and slowly pulled out the protocol manual. When she first started at SHIELD they had told her to memorize over 200 different codes for different emergencies. She had only truly memorized 50 of the ones that she deemed important. The other ones didn't pertain to her, as she wasn't an agent, so when they called out a code that she didn't know she would look it up.

She flipped through the large binder trying to find the code. Some of these codes were pages long of information! How could they expect her to remember all of these?

She was almost to the right page, now flipping paste code 340 when Tripp slammed her office door open causing her to shriek. She whipped around ready to give him a piece of her mind for scaring her half to death when he grabbed her bag and thrust it in her arms.

"We have to get out of here," he panted out. He pulled her out of her seat and reached down to get her handgun from under her desk.

"Tripp, what the hell is going on?" she demanded. Panic was written across her face. His urgency rushed her along. She gathered her phone and other essentials off the desk and stuffing them in her bag before taking the gun from him and loading it.

He took her hand and pulled her through the halls of SHIELD. He looked around every corner before continuing stealthily through the building. Allison's mind was wandering through all of the scenarios that could be happening. Was SHIELD compromised? Had someone launched an attack on them? Was America at war?

They finally reached outside and Allie got her answer. The streets were filled with rubble, over turned cars, and panicked people running into buildings. Something fell from the sky and landed in front of them with a thud.

She looked up to see a creature that looked to be from a horror sci-fi movie. It was about two feet taller than her with piercing yellow eyes and armor covering its body.

The thing in front of them raised its hand ready to strike her down until she heard Tripp's gun fire off next to her. The monster crumpled to the ground and they stepped around it hurrying down the street before another creature tried to kill them again.

Allison was tugged into an alleyway where Tripp shook her by the shoulders trying to get her to snap out of her daze. Finally she blinked her eyes a few times and focused on his worried face in front of her.

"Allie!" he shook her again. "Listen to me, you need to get to your apartment. They are trying to keep this contained, so it'll be far enough away from this that you'll be safe. I need to leave and help get civilians to safety." He pulled the hand holding her gun up to her line of sight. "You'll need to use this. Be careful, get home, and get safe. I'll be over as soon as I can."

He pulled her in a quick hug and pressed a kiss against her temple. "Be safe," he whispered before disappearing from the alley.

She stood in the dark for a moment before shaking her head a few times. Taking a deep breath, Allie readjusted her bag on her should and rushed down the streets, finger on the trigger the whole time.

She paused when she heard a scream a few blocks away from the perimeter. A monster was on top of a car pointing its spear at a mother and child below. Allie brought her gun to aim at the monster, two hands on the gun, and straightening her arms she fired off three shots. The creature tumbled to the ground; the mother just missed being crushed by an inch.

Allie rushed over to her and made sure both mom and child were ok. "You need to get home or underground," she yelled at them. The mom nodded and switched her baby from one hip to the other. Allie pointer to the nearest subway entrance and watched them until they disappeared around a corner.

Allie ran the rest of the way home. When she finally reached her apartment, she locked the door and placed a chair under the doorknob. She closed all the blinds and turned off all of the lights. She then sat her gun on the coffee table in front of the couch, safety still off, wrapped her arms around her knees and stared frightened at the door waiting for a monster to try to break in.

* * *

The battle had been relentless. The amount of aliens that descended from the portal was non-stop. Steve was beat up. He was exhausted. He and the other members of the team could figure out a way to get the portal to close. He was beginning to lose hope.

Banner had shown up a while ago and helped take out the bigger fishy-alien things but it seemed that they had noticed this and had started concentrating their forces on them. Each member of the team was fighting against a different squadron of aliens. If there wasn't an end to their numbers, they would be overpowered and soon.

"I can close it," Natasha's voice grunted into the comms. "Can anybody copy? I can shut the portal down."

"Do it!" Steve ordered.

"No wait!" Tony said.

"Stark these things are still coming,"

"I got a nuke coming in," he explained, "It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it."

"Stark," Steve said, his voice filled with concern. "You know that's a one-way trip."

Steve and Thor watched as Tony's suit carried a missile up and into the portal. Suddenly all of the aliens around them fell to the ground like someone had pressed the off switch. They looked up to see if Tony was coming back through the port but nothing could bee seen except for the explosion from the bomb. After glancing at Thor, Steve made the call.

"Close it," he said.

Right before the portal completely closed Tony fell through the small opening.

"Son of a gun," Steve said.

He tumbled down towards them way too fast without any sign of slowing down. Next to him, Thor started swinging his hammer, "He's not slowing down."

At the last moment, the Hulk crashed into Tony and then slid across the ground. They ran over to him and Thor ripped his mask off. He didn't seem to be breathing. Steve readied his hands to give him CPR but he was in his suit so it would do no good. He sat back on his heels looking at the ground. Another good man was lost.

Suddenly, Hulk let out a loud roar and Tony gasped for air. Panting and panic he looked around.

"What the hell?" he gasped for air. "What just happened? Please tell me nobody kissed me."

Steve shook his head slightly. How could he be joking right now? "We won," he said.

Tony let out a big sigh. "Alright, yay," he said lamely, obviously too exhausted to show any real excitement. "Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow lets just take a day." He grunted trying to get himself up but failed. He looked at Hulk and Thor, "You ever try shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is but I want to try it."

Steve laughed but Thor looked seriously at him, "We're not finished yet."

"And then shawarma after."

* * *

The team sat around a table in the shawarma shop not too far away from where the battle took place. The shop owners were hesitant to open for them but Tony had handed over a few large bills before the opened the doors with bright smiles on their faces. Each had ordered the basic meal since none of them except for Clint even knew what shawarma was. They ate in silence. Slowly chewing their food almost too exhausted to even eat.

Loki sat in a booth in the corner; Thor's hammer resting on his chest. He had also been muzzled which everyone had been grateful for.

Afterwards, Tony invited them all back to his Tower to rest. His penthouse suite had been destroyed but the four floors beneath it had rooms that everyone could use.

They all squished in the only working elevator when a voice spoke over the speaker.

"Good afternoon sir," it said. "May I say good job to you and the others." Everyone mumbled or grunted in response and the voice continued, "Agent May and a team are on their way to collect Loki."

"Jarvis, we're all in a need of a bed and a shower, think you can help us out?" Tony asked the disembodied voice.

"Of course, sir," it replied. After a moment it spoke again, "I have assigned each of you a room. I have assigned you a room as well, sir, since your suite has acquired quite a bit of damage."

The elevator continued its ascent to the guest floors. It stopped at three different floors and the voice instructed who should get off at each floor. Steve and Thor were let off at the first stop. The doors opened to a hallway dividing the floor into two separate suites.

Steve opened the door on the right. The lights inside automatically turned on to show a beautiful suite somehow untouched by the battle. The room was large expanding all the way to the back windows looking out over the city. To the left towards the front of the room was a sparkling kitchen. A black marble island separated the stainless steel appliances from the dinning table. Behind the table was a sitting area with a large cream couch and chairs facing the fireplace.

Two doors were propped open leading to two bedrooms with large king size beds. He looked longingly at one bed as he walked in the room. He reached out to feel the plush mattress when he heard the voice from earlier addressing him.

"Captain Rogers," it said, "an agent is here to deliver your things."

Steve opened the door to see a battered agent carrying the duffle he had brought on the Helicarrier. "Captain, Director Fury would like to debrief with you and the rest of the team at 1500 hours tomorrow." The agent handed him the bag. Steve couldn't help but sigh as the debriefing tomorrow. The agent then got back on the elevator before disappearing.

He tossed his bag on the bed and pulled out a change of clothes. Slowly he started peeling off his suit. He had just gotten the top half when he heard his cellphone ring. He quickly dug through his bag and answered it.

"Hello, Steve Rogers speaking," even though he was about ready to pass out, he couldn't forget his manners.

"Steve!" Allison's voice cried out in relief. Steve held the phone away from his ear, "Thank god you're ok!"

"Yes. I am ok. Just really tir-"

"I was so scared," she choked back a sob, "Tripp got me fr-from work and I killed one of tho-those things! It was attaching this po-po-poor mother! Tripp sa-said he would be back when it was over but he's not and I'm watching you fight on the news and holy sh-shit.." she paused to blow her nose loudly in the phone. Her voice cracked as she spoke obviously trying hard not to cry.

"Allison, are you hurt?" he voice was harsh as he asked.

"No."

"Are you ok?" he asked a little softer this time.

"N-no," she whimpered.

"Where are you?"

"At my apartment." She gave him her address and he realized that he knew where that was. Steve told her that he would be there soon before hanging up the phone.

He quickly changed and slung his shield over his shoulder just in case. Taking a deep sigh he looked up at the ceiling willing the voice to speak to him. No luck.

"Uh… hello?" he asked.

"Yes, Captain Rogers? How can I help you?" the voice responded.

"I need to leave the Tower. Does Tony have a car that I can borrow?"

"Yes, Captain. There are vehicles that you can use in the parking garage on the bottom floor. I will let Mr. Stark know that you are borrowing one."

Steve took the elevator down to the parking garage. Stepping out he saw an assortment of shiny sport cars and motorcycles perfectly lined up. He hopped on a Harley Davidson and sped through the city.

He quickly reached Allison's apartment building. He pressed the button next to her name and then heard the front door unlock. He bounded up the stairs to her and exited the stairwell. He looked down the hall to see her peaking her head out around the door waiting for him.

"Steve," she gasped and then wrapped her arms around his neck in a hug. He awkwardly put his arms around her waist and hugged her back. They stood like this for a moment before her body started to shake as she cried. She pressed her face against his chest, her warm breath against him and her tears wetting his shirt. He softly rubbed her back in a comforting way.

After a moment she stepped back and tried to wipe her tears from his shirt. Obviously failing she let out a breathy laugh, "Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin your shirt."

"You didn't," Steve said, "A lot happened today, it's ok to be overwhelmed." Allison looked up at him with a watery smile and red eyes, which made her blue eyes even more striking.

She stepped inside so Steve followed, taking his shoes off and setting his shield against the wall. She handed him a glass of water and drank greedily from hers feeling dehydrated after drying so much.

She set the empty glass down and looked him over. He was covered with dirt and cuts. A few bruises were bluing on his cheek and shoulder from the battle. He probably had more that were covered up by his clothes.

"Thanks for coming over," she said quietly, her eyes were staring intently at her feet. "Tripp said he'd be over after but I didn't know what to do… I hope you didn't leave anything important to come deal with me."

"We were back at the Stark Tower," he said.

"Do you need to go back," she looked back up at him concerned.

"No, we were just cleaning up. Besides, you need me."

A blush crept across her face as she smiled at him. "You can shower her if you want." Allie pulled a set of towels out of the closet and handed them to him.

He took them and followed her to the bathroom. They had to walk through her room to get there and Steve had to step around some clothes that had been tossed on the floor. He blushed bright red when he had to step over a black lacy bra.

He had just stepped under the hot spray of the shower when he heard Allie's voice yell at him from her room, "Sorry I only have girly soaps but go ahead and use whatever!"

His cheeks turned red again and thanked her. He shouldn't be talking to a girl while he was naked even if there was no way she could see him. As he washed off his mind wandered to her small apartment and that lacy bra that he saw earlier. He started picturing her in that bra with her cheeks tinged pink and plump red lips staring up at him. Her bright blue eyes hooded with the weight of heavy black lashes as she cried his name out -

"Steve!" he dropped the shampoo bottle that he was holding when her voice startled him out of his daydream. "I'm making mac and cheese is that ok?"

"S-sure," he stuttered out. Mentally he berated himself. He should definitely not be thinking those thoughts about her. Especially when she had let him take a shower and was now making him dinner. Quickly he finished up and got dressed.

He walked out to see Allison spooning the pasta into two bowls. She handed a bowl to him and walked over to the couch. Steve sat down next to her ensuring there was enough space between them so they weren't touching.

"Do you need to leave soon?" She asked before taking a big bite of her food.

"No, we have debriefing tomorrow though," he responded.

"Really? They should be giving you the day off!"

Steve couldn't help but laugh, "Tony said the same thing."

She laughed too and said, "Want to watch a movie? You can leave when it's over if you want?"

"Yeah that'd be nice," he smiled at her.

She turned on the TV and then flipped through the movies on Netflix until she picked, "My Fair Lady." She assured him that it was a great movie. The movie started and Steve even found himself chuckling at the movie a bit.

As the movie continued, Allie readjusted in her seat and when she stopped her legs were crossed and pressed up against Steve's. She was sitting so close that he could feel the warmth radiating off of her. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. She was wearing black yoga pants and an oversized long sleeve shirt that slide off of her shoulder. Her makeup was slightly smudged from crying earlier and her curly hair was frizzier than normal but it all still managed to look attractive.

A few curls fell into her face as her head rolled to the side when she nodded off in the middle of the movie. She unconsciously leaned into Steve as she fell into a deeper sleep. He head lolled once more until it was fully resting on Steve's shoulder.

He sat completely still, nervous that any movement would wake her. Carefully he brushed the few curls from her face and tucked them gently behind her ear. As Steve continued to watch the movie he felt his eyelids growing heavier until they eventually closed and he fell asleep too.


End file.
